~ Making a difference… how hard can it be?

141. Getting more people caring…

I’m really enjoying supporting what other people care about. This evening the other half’s been talking about Stephen Amell:

Stephen Amell may play a superhero on TV’s Arrow, but he is finding it hard to save the day in real life. The CW actor started an Ebay auction of Arrow memorabilia to help a good cause. Amell is champing Prayers for Sophie, a charity is devoted to helping a very brave toddler Sophie who suffers from rare Optic Pathway Glioma brain tumor. However, several of the Ebay bidders have fail the hero. Amell charitable efforts have fallen victim to some real life villains.

Stephen Amell’s is fighting the good fight and taking aim at some of the internet’s uncharitable souls. Amell’s charity Ebay acution was hijacked. Amell took to Facebook to explain just what went wrong:

“Here’s what happened: I like to operate from the standpoint that the world is filled with good people who want to support causes. Unfortunately, the world is also filled with assholes who want to artificially inflate an auction in the hopes that… I don’t even know. You can’t rationalize people without good sense. We had a bunch of people spamming the beginning of the auction. In the latter stages we had a number of reputable eBay people back out. The winning bidder claimed someone hacked her account. Why? I have no idea. Maybe they skipped school the day the teacher outlined the basic parameters of human decency. Maybe they were worried that I wasn’t who I claim to be.”

Stephen Amell is not just sitting back and winning about the experience, he is taking responsibility:

“And that brings me to the place we’re placing blame: Right on me. In actuality… this is really all on me.I should have done more research on eBay before launching into this. Truth be told, I was just too eager to begin contributing to a cause that is incredibly important to me. Sophie is a wonderful, unbelievable miracle of a girl and when I got a chance to meet her I put my heart in front of my head. Secondarily, she was right around the same age as my daughter when her initial diagnosis came through. The whole scenario was a lot to wrap my head around. I should have realized that buyer requirements were a must. They now exist. I should have started with a shorter auction and only shipped to North American bidders. Those are now the parameters.

Despite the setbacks, Amell is not going to give up. The actor has big plans to help others:

“Over the next several months I’m going to be launching a non profit organization in conjunction with Nocking Point and we are going to raise a phenomenal amount of money for charity. A shit load of money. We’re going to set an example.But for now… let’s start small. Let’s remember that a family of real people, that could really use our help don’t deserve to be strung along by irresponsible bidders. Let’s remember Sophie. My heartfelt apologies that this is going to take a little longer than expected. But I’m going to continue to think with my heart almost all the time. That’s just me.”

When I asked the other half to send me the link, he did. I’ve donated because don’t we all want to believe that the world is full of “good people who want to support causes”?